Scholars program

[2015 MD Mom]

Interesting read about the scholars program written by Dr. Fagin, Professor of Computer Science.

http://www.gazette.com/articles/fagi...ogram-afa.html

He says, "Together we face some of the greatest ideas of the 20th century, ideas that helped create the modern world. They question, they struggle, they sweat. The reading is so dense that it can take an hour to get through one page. But with lots of examples, lots of practice, and lots of homework, they get it. They get it, and they understand. They are an educator’s dream. Have I mentioned they are college freshmen?”

[hornetguy]

Originally Posted by Blue&SilverBear

The intent of the scholars program is to "groom" potentially high performing cadets to compete for graduate scholarships like the Rhodes, Marshall, or Truman. From talking to people in the program as a cadet, the secret of the program is that folks generally consider scholars classes to be easier than "normal" classes, which helps them keep high GPAs to compete for the scholarships.

It's definitely a good thing for those selected.

I was not in the program, but managed to swing a 1 year endowed grad school scholarship. My GPA was definitely one of the lowest for someone going straight to grad school.

While many claimed they were "easier," that label came from the fact that scholar's courses relied far less on lecture+quizzing model and on student-led discussion+papers. We had far less weekly busy work, but typically 3-4 major papers and/or a major test and a large final paper as our only coursework. They were not meant to pad our grades at all as most of us would have gotten comparable grades in the non-scholar version regardless. Prevented any kind of punishment for taking a different and often more in-depth style with no weighting in the USAFA system.

While I was in scholars, we were never given the notion it was meant to groom us for scholarships. We were the group most likely to apply and receive them based on our Ac Comp and grades anyway. Not that it isn't a nice perk to have that on our resumes for applications....